Treatment of constipation with laxatives is a $3.1 million a year business and prolonged laxative use can be accompanied by a variety of undesirable side effects. As a consequence, dietary fiber has been promoted as an effective, more physiological and less expensive treatment mode. Laxative use increases with age and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the publicized benefits of over-the-counter health aids. Further, nursing homes are using fiber to treat chronic constipation as a cost saving measure. However, inducing negative mineral balances is one of the most well substantiated negative consequences of consuming additional dietary fiber and the detrimental potential of this treatment is even greater in the elderly whose mineral intake is often inadequate. While the effects of fiber on mineral nutriture varies with the mineral, increased fecal calcium has been consistently observed when those fibers that are used to treat constipation are consumed and thus, the potential to exacerbate osteoporosis by adding fiber to the diet of the elderly clearly exists. Those studies that have tested the efficacy of treating constipation with fiber frequently combined the fiber with an increased fluid intake; close examination of the data suggests that increased fluid intake, independent of fiber, may have an effect on stool output. The aims of this pilot research are to determine the impact of wheat bran on fecal calcium excretion and to compare the laxation effects of wheat bran with those of increased fluid intake. Because the nutritional status of the institutionalized older adult is often more compromised than that of the non-institutionalized, ambulatory residents from a nursing home will be studied. In three studies, diet and fecal calcium and neutral detergent fiber, wet and dry stool weights, defecation frequency and gastrointestinal transit time will be measured and also correlated to examine their relationship in a population with constipation. Costs of treatment with fiber and/or fluid will be compared to those for laxatives. In addition to identifying an effective treatment for constipation, this pilot project will generate measurements of bowel function, calcium nutriture and apparent fiber digestibility in a group for whom few such data exist, despite their significant representation in our society.